Postal Medal 73 Digital

POSTAL MEDAL AUCTION - 73
Soon after his arrival in Matabeleland, he was warned by a former warrior, Sikwaba, a survivor of the
Imbizo Regiment, which body had been corporately sentenced to death for disobedience by King
Lobengula, that he had had a vision in which the latter unleashed ‘supernatural forces’ on the European
settlers - a vision that found credence by way of the rebellion that erupted a few months later. Jackson
and a small party were cut off deep in the Matabele stronghold, the Matopos Hills, when the rebellion
broke out, and, in the absence of any news, it was reported that he had been killed - luckily, as it
transpired, he made good his escape and reached Bulawayo.
Quickly enlisting in Gifford’s Horse, he
was appointed a Lieutenant in “B” Troop,
commanded by Captain H. P. Flynn, a
fellow Native Commissioner, and
boasting among its number a future Prime
Minister of Southern Rhodesia, Howard
Moffat. The unit had been raised by the
Rt. Hon. Captain (afterwards Lieutenant-
Colonel) Maurice Gifford, who was
severely wounded in the action at
Fonseca’s Farm on 6 April 1896, wounds
that resulted in the amputation of his right
arm. Nonetheless, Gifford’s Horse
continued to lend valuable service with
regular patrol work until a peace
settlement was negotiated by Cecil
Rhodes that August.
Having in 1900 been appointed a J.P.,
Jackson enjoyed a spate of appointments
over the coming years, among them
Assistant Magistrate for the Bulawayo
District, as Superintendent of Gwelo,
Selukwe, Insiza and Belingwe, and, in
1908, as a Native Commissioner and
Additional Magistrate at Gwelo. Then in
1913, he became Native Commissioner
and Superintendent of Natives for
Bulawayo District, while in 1921 he was
appointed Acting Chief Native
Commissioner in Salisbury.
Awarded the O.B.E. in 1924, in which year he was advanced to Assistant Chief Native Commissioner,
Jackson was given the portfolio of Chief Native Commissioner and Head of the Southern Rhodesia
Native Department in 1928, on the retirement of Sir Herbert Taylor. In 1930, the year of his own
retirement, he also served as Chairman of the Native Affairs Committee and as Government
Representative on the Board of the Native Labour Bureau. He was appointed C.M.G.
Jackson, who retained the ‘keenest interest in all matters affecting natives and native welfare’, and
who was blessed with a ‘fantastic sense of humour’, died at his residence in Borrowdale in November
1934.
Sold with a large file of related research and several evocative (copy) photographs from his time as a
young officer in Gifford’s Horse, so, too, with a long list of archive references to articles he published
in his lifetime.
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POSTAL MEDAL
AUCTION 73